


the dynamite in my chains

by nirav



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 12:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3067898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirav/pseuds/nirav
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which laura tries to find a lost cat to impress danny and winds up with a lot more than she bargained for</p>
            </blockquote>





	the dynamite in my chains

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Care](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Care/gifts).



> christmas fic, for the maddeningly vague request of "laura/carmilla AU"

_shot through the cracks of the earthquake_   
_my body's moving into retrograde_   
_i'm feeling loose, feeling untamed_   
_and you're the dynamite in my chains_

 

* * *

 

 

“God, you’re heavy,” Laura mumbles at the cat in her arms. It meows angrily, glaring up at her with dark eyes, and yowls again. The flier in her hand crumples against dark fur, and the cat’s tail flips up, slapping Laura across the face. “Stop it! I’m taking you home.”

The Summer Society house appears at the end of the block, and Laura sighs. “Finally,” she says to the cat. “Look, we’re almost there!” The cat turns its glare away with exasperation, going limp and somehow heavier in her arms.

“Here we are,” Laura chirps. She makes it to the end of the block without incident and settles on the front steps. “If I put you down will you run away?”

The cat thrashes again, and Laura sighs. “Fine, be uncooperative. I can wait. No one is home yet anyways, Danny—that’s my friend, she lives here, your owner’s friend—she’s like the—the team captain or something, I don’t really know, but they all listen to her. Anyways, she said they have a training session every afternoon until six, and then go for a run, so no one will be back until—oh!” She smiles brightly towards the train of girls jogging in formation down the sidewalk, a six-minute mile mass silhouetted dramatically by the setting sun. A redheaded figure breaks ahead of the others, sprinting down the rest of the block towards the house. “There they are.”

“Laura, what are you—what the _hell_ ,” Danny yelps. “Get away from that!”

“What? Hi! I mean—I found your friend’s cat! The one on the fliers!”

“My friend’s—Laura, that’s not a cat, that’s practically a _panther_ , what are you—“

“It said she lost a giant black cat, and I found it by the library,” Laura says excitedly. She struggles up to her feet, still clinching the cat. “But she’s kind of feisty, I can see why you guys—“

“Elsie!” Danny shouts, reaching back into the mass of athletic girls and yanking one free of the crowd. “That’s not your cat. Tell her that’s not your cat.”

“That’s not my cat,” Elsie says, staring at the animal in Laura’s arms. “I’m pretty sure that’s a jaguar.”

“It’s not—“

“How did you even carry that thing?” Danny shoves back past Elsie, moving towards Laura and the cat with her hands up. The cat yowls angrily, swiping with one claw out towards Danny.

“Stop that!” Laura grips the cat tighter and glares down at it peevishly. She glances back up to Danny, flushing under the confused stares from Danny and the entire Summer Society and their long legs and sports bras and toned arms and sweaty red hair and—“Are you sure? I thought—“

“He’s fat, not prehistorically huge,” Elsie says helpfully. “Like, really, how could you even—“

“Shut up,” Danny says, shoving her back into the crowd before looking back towards Laura. “It’s really sweet of you, that’s just—“

“Not the right cat,” Laura mumbles, flushing hotly. “Got it.”

“Come on,” Danny says, jerking her head back towards campus. “I’ll walk you home.” The crowd behind her parts silently, and Laura shuffles forward. The cat is thankfully calm, and Danny’s hand comforting on her back, as they start towards home.

“I was just trying to help,” Laura says halfway down the block.

“I know,” Danny says quietly. “And Elsie’s a jerk to everyone, don’t worry about her. And her cat _is_ black and pretty gigantic.”

“Just not this gigantic, apparently.” Laura glances up at her, smiling halfway, and Danny smiles back, wide and easy.

“Laura, that thing isn’t a cat, it’s like—“

“Prehistorically large,” Laura supplies. Danny laughs, her eyes crinkling and sweaty skin glistening in the setting sunlight, and Laura swallows around the prehistorically large crush forming a lump in her throat.

 

* * *

 

 

The walk back to Laura’s dorm doesn’t last long, and Danny hovers in the doorway to her room. “What are you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know,” Laura says with a careful shrug, the cat asleep in her arms. “She doesn’t look hungry or anything, but she doesn’t have a collar so—maybe the animal shelter?”

“I can drive you,” Danny offers, leaning one shoulder against the door. “I’m done with office hours at noon tomorrow.”

“Might be a good idea,” Laura says. She glances back down at the cat, heavy in her arms, and smiles fondly at the way her head lolls back lazily against her arm. “She’s kind of cute, maybe I’ll keep her.”

“Keep—Laura, that thing could kill you in about four seconds.”

“But she’s so _cute_! Look at her, she’s all fluffy and—“

“Laura,” Danny says sternly. “You can’t—you need to at least take her to a vet to see if she’s healthy before you try and keep her.”

“Right,” Laura says distractedly.

“Right,” Danny echoes. She sighs, pushing off the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, let me know if you want me to drive you.”

“I—yeah,” Laura says, her voice rocketing up an octave. “Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Danny says with a smile, and the door snicks shut quietly behind her as she leaves.

“Anytime,” Laura echoes, looking back down at the cat and squeezing it carefully. “Isn’t she awesome?”

The cat finally wakes up, glaring up at Laura petulantly. Her tail thwacks her in the face again.

“You’re just jealous,” Laura informs the cat. “Come on, let’s find you something to eat.”

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning, the cat is gone. The door is still locked, the window shut, but the cat is so thoroughly gone that Laura stumbles into her first class convinced she’s imagined the whole thing, barely making it in before the perpetually late philosophy major who spends every class sneering from the back of the room. It’s not until she habitually lingers after her 10:00 lit class, stowing her notes slowly so she can run into Danny on the way out, that Danny asks after the panther and Laura determines that she did, in fact, appropriate a prehistorically large stray cat the night before.

“Oh—uh, gone,” Laura mumbles, frowning. “She was gone when I woke up this morning.”

“She—gone? How?”

“I dunno,” Laura says with a shrug. “Looked everywhere, but she was definitely gone.”

“That’s weird,” Danny says. “Right? Even for here. Cats don’t just—disappear.”

“Your friend’s did,” Laura says peevishly, still smarting over Elsie’s sneer the night before.

“Yeah, well, Elsie is an idiot who leaves her window open so her stupid Zeta boyfriend can climb in at night.”

“Well,” Laura says. “She’s gone, so.” She sighs dramatically. “Such is life.”

Danny’s eyebrows raise, and she rolls her eyes before hooking her hand through Laura’s elbow. “Come on, let’s go get some pie.”

“What?” Laura shuffles along after her, brow furrowed. “Don’t you have office hours?”

“Yep.” Danny backs through the building doors easily, winking at Laura. “I’m working with a student who needs help, obviously.”

Laura giggles— _giggles_ , like a child—and hurries after her, settling more comfortably at her side. She only hesitates for a moment, glancing towards the shrubbery in front of the philosophy building where a dark catlike shadow lurks, before turning her attention back to Danny.

 

* * *

 

It’s two hours later when they walk into Laura’s room, full of pie. Danny plops down to sit on the bed opposite Laura’s, stripped and empty save for a pile of clothes and jackets that Laura’s been throwing on it for weeks.

“Don’t you have a roommate?”

“She was on the waitlist for Princeton and got in at the last minute,” Laura shrugs, settling in her desk chair.

“I didn’t get my own room until I was a junior,” Danny grumbles. She flops back and kicks her feet up onto the bed, shoving the pile of clothes closer to the wall. The pile yelps and a claw swipes at Danny, who leaps off the bed and lands with her fists up. “What the—“

The cat shakes free of the clothes, one of Laura’s socks flying off of its head, and hisses at Danny.

“I thought you said it was gone!”

“I thought it was!” Laura stares at the cat, reaching out tentatively.

“Don’t—“

The cat stops hissing, cocking her head towards Laura momentarily, and her spine levels out, ears perking up. Laura presses her hand tentatively atop her head, and she relaxes, sitting back down on the bed and glaring Danny even as she leans into Laura’s hand.

“What the hell,” Danny mutters, dropping her fists slowly.

“How did you even get back in here?” Laura asks the cat, petting her slowly. She jerks back, stalking back into the pile of clothes and curling up.

“What the _hell_ ,” Danny says again. “Are you sure she wasn’t here this morning?”

“Positive!” Laura says. “I looked everywhere, she wasn’t here at all.”

“And you locked you door and—“

“You just watched me unlock it to get back in!” Laura says hotly, and the cat hisses from her place on the bed, glaring at Danny again.

“Right,” Danny says. Laura keeps petting the cat, and she calms quietly, settling into the pile of clothes as Laura moves to sit beside her. “Well, I’ll just—see you later.”

“Wait, what?”

“I don’t think your cat likes me,” Danny says with a shrug.

“She’s not _my_ —“

“It’s cool,” Danny says. She buttons up her coat and waves awkwardly from her place in the middle of the room. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Okay,” Laura says, not moving. “Good night.”

“Night,” Danny says with a small smile. The door shuts behind her, and Laura turns her attention back to the cat.

“Why are you mean to the girl I have a crush on,” she mutters, poking the cat’s ear. She purrs quietly and bats one paw gently against her leg, and Laura sighs. “And where the hell were you hiding this morning?”

**

When she wakes up the next morning, the cat is gone again.

“Oh, come on,” Laura grumbles to the empty room.

 

* * *

 

 

She tracks down Danny between classes, finding her in the gym rattling out push-ups.

“The cat was in my room last night, right?” she says as a greeting.

“What?” Her breath comes out in short gasps between push-ups, and Laura pauses, looks around, considers where she is. Gym. She’s in a gym. Watching Danny— _no_ , she came here for a reason, and that reason was not the unfairly defined lines of Danny’s arms.

“The cat,” she says again. Laura drops down to sit in front of Danny, who’s still being sweaty and athletic and attractive with the added bonus of watching Laura with a confused expression even as she keeps knocking out push-ups. “The cat was in my room last night, right?”

“Yeah, she’s kind of a jerk,” Danny says.

“She is not!” Laura crosses her arms defiantly, before her shoulders slump in defeat. “And she’s gone again. I triple checked everywhere this morning, she was gone again!”

“Laura,” Danny huffs out, finally stopping long enough to settle back and sit on her heels. “There’s no way that cat just _disappears_ every morning.”

“But she did!”

“Laura,” Danny says again. Laura bristles, because Danny has her TA face on, the one she uses when idiot baby Zetas don’t want to read Jane Austen because _chick lit is boring_.

“No,” Laura says sharply, pointing at her. “She does, and she did, and I’m going to prove it.”

“You’re—what?”

“I’m going to prove it,” Laura says. She pushes her way up to her feet.

“What are you going to do, google teleporting cats?” Danny calls after her.

“I’m going to prove it,” Laura shouts again over her shoulder. She powerwalks to the library and is only half an hour into reading tabloid reports of mystical pets when a stack of books is clomped down on the other side of her table.

“Um,” she says. The sneering philosophy major from her morning class has her feet propped up on the table, nose buried in a book. “I was kind of using this—“

“Be quiet, cupcake,” the other girl says, looking up barely long enough to quirk an eyebrow at her and hold a finger to her lips before returning to her reading, and Laura swallows loudly because she’s never heard a voice that could somehow be exactly as attractive as Danny Lawrence doing three hundred pushups, but hey, now she definitely has and it’s definitely a problem.

“But—“

“Library,” the other girl says. She doesn’t look up this time, but simply slumps further down in her chair. “Shh.”

Laura stares at her, long moments passing, before she finally sighs and shoves her headphones into her ears, returning to her research on a woman from Kansas whose cat apparently wrote _Twilight_ on an antique typewriter three years before Stephanie Meyer did.

When she leaves for dinner, the girl across from her is still slumped in her chair, feet on the table and head lolling back as she sleeps. Laura considers knocking her feet off the table on the way out, but refrains. Who knows what someone in motorcycle boots and leather pants would do to her if woken so rudely.

 

* * *

 

 

When she walks into her dorm room, the cat is perched on her desk chair.

“Seriously?”

The cat hops nimbly to the floor, slinking over and curling around her ankles.

“You’re a mystery,” Laura informs the cat. “And you need a name.”

The cat recoils, leaping back up onto the spare bed and turning away from Laura.

“Or…not,” Laura says. “Fine. Be cool and mysterious and nameless. See if I care.” She reclaims her desk chair, fishing her laptop out and returning to her research.

She only lasts five minutes before she looks over to check on the cat, who is curled up on the corner of the mattress closest to Laura’s desk. Laura sighs, reaching out and petting her head gently.

“You should stay this time,” she says before she disappears into the bathroom to take a shower. “Prove to me I’m not crazy.”

The cat is still there when she emerges, toothbrush in her mouth. By morning, though, she’s gone.

 

* * *

 

 

The sneering philosophy major is almost late, as always. She doesn’t slouch to the back of the room, though, and instead settles in Laura’s row, one empty seat separating them, and spends the whole class doodling on her empty coffee cup with a sharpie. She doesn’t move when the class ends, leaving just enough room for Laura to squeak by behind her, and Laura huffs loudly as she shoves her way past.

“Nice to see you again, too, cupcake.” There’s that voice again, and Laura all but shudders, not giving in to the way her eyes want to turn towards the other girl. She squares her shoulders and yanks her bag from where it’s caught on the chair in her way, and marches out of the room.

It’s not until she’s settling in her seat in her next class and reaching for her notebook while trying to catch Danny’s eye that she realizes there’s a coffee cup shoved into her bag. She pulls it out, staring down at it in confusion. It’s covered in drawings, geometric shapes exploding into one another and fading into echoing lines that circle the whole cup.

After class, she waits for Danny as always.

“The cat was back last night,” she says.

“Right,” Danny says, wiping down the chalkboard. “Okay. And this morning?”

“Well,” Laura says. She fidgets with the coffee cup. “I mean—“

Danny laughs and shakes her head. “Look, Laura, weird things happen at this school. The alchemy club is, like, a real thing. Everyone is convinced that there’s a haunted printer in the basement of the library. None of the Zetas are failing any of their classes, even this one. Your teleporting cat isn’t the weirdest thing around.”

“Right,” Laura says slowly. “Well, I’m still going to figure this out.”

“As long as you don’t get yourself attacked by the panther.”

“I—she wouldn’t!”

“Of course not,” Danny deadpans. “But be careful anyways.”

 

* * *

 

The rest of the week passes, the cat somehow always in her room when Laura returns and gone every morning when she wakes, and Laura has a collection of three decorated coffee cups lined up on her dresser and spends her weekend in the library reading about demonic cats. She wakes from nightmares of being overrun by poltergeist kittens to see the cat curled over her feet and watching her with what could almost count as concern.

“It’s okay,” she whispers to the cat. “It was just a dream.” She wrinkles her nose. “And I’m talking to a cat.”

The cat flips her tail, flicking the tip against Laura’s hand, and stands, circles, resettles over Laura’s feet.

“Please, make yourself at home,” Laura mutters. She yanks at the covers, tugged down by the cat’s movements, pulling crossly until the cat moves enough to let resettle them over her shoulders. “You’re a pain, you know that?” she says. “Good thing you’re cute.”

The cat preens, tossing her head before reclaiming her spot over Laura’s feet.

“Arrogant,” Laura says. The cat ignores her.

 

* * *

 

She has five coffee cups and has just collected her sixth when she runs into the sneering philosophy major at lunch. Laura is caught up in conversation with Danny and one of her Summer Society sisters—not Elsie; Elsie is still on the list of unfavorable peers that Laura would never admit to keeping—and she manages to walk right into someone.

“Watch it, cupcake.”

“Oh,” Laura breathes out, and she glances down at her arms and the way Danny caught her on one side and the girl with the pornographic voice who she walked into caught her other arm. “Hi.”

“You should watch where you’re going,” Danny says sharply, glaring down from her considerable height.

“I’m not the one who was walked into, Xena,” she retorts. Her hands is still on Laura’s arm, and Danny bristles noticeably. Her sisters stiffen, looking warily between Laura and Danny and the girl between them.

“It’s—not a big deal,” Laura says after a long moment. She looks back and forth between the two of them. “No need to, um, get in a fight.”

“Right,” the other girl says smoothly. Her fingers curl around Laura’s wrist.

“What the—who _are_ you?” Danny’s hand tightens on Laura’s arm. “Or do you call all the strangers you bulldoze into _cupcake_?”

“Carmilla,” she says by way on introduction. “We’re in sociology together. Study buddies.” She looks away from Laura finally, sliding her gaze over to Danny and winking at her. “Long, long hours in the library studying.”

“Right,” Laura squeaks out. “Studying. For sociology.” She glances over at Danny, who looks ready to bench press Carmilla through the ceiling. “But we were just leaving, so—um, Carmilla, nice to see you, sorry for running into you, I’ll see you in class.”

“Or the library,” Carmilla says silkily. She smirks at Danny and finally lets go of Laura, her fingers sliding gratuitously along her forearm before she shoulders her way past them, shoving between Laura and Danny and breaking Danny’s grip.

“What a bitch,” Danny mutters.

“She isn’t!”

“Seriously? That—wait, is that coffee cup girl? _Her_?” Danny rolls her eyes up towards the ceiling, taking a deep breath. “She’s the one that’s got you all tied up in knots every day?”

“No,” Laura lies, sullen and childish. “Maybe. Yes.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Shut up,” Laura mumbles.   She hitches her bag up higher on her shoulder, and the day’s coffee cup tumbles out, falling to the floor. Laura flushes violently, snatching the cup back up and shoving it into her bag. “I’m going to study,” she announces loudly, and scurries off to her dorm.

The cat is there, watching her curiously from the other side of the room as Laura settles the cup with the others.

“Not a word from you,” she says, pointing sharply at the cat.

The cat curls up on Laura’s pillow and falls asleep within the minute, and Laura glares at it for taking her pillow _again_ before flopping back on her bed.

“Worst. Crush. Ever.”

The cat’s tail slaps her in the face, and Laura groans, rolling over and burying her face in the comforter.

 

* * *

 

“Danny!” Laura bursts into Danny’s office halfway through office hours, eyes bright and a sheaf of printed pages in her hand.

“Shit!” Danny spills her coffee on the essay she’s grading. “What the—hey, why weren’t you in class today?”

“I was in the library,” Laura says, waving one hand dismissively. She grabs a handful of tissues and helps blot at the coffee anxiously. “I figured it—wait, is that my paper? That’s a lot of red. Why—“

“Laura!” Danny yelps, flipping the paper over. “You can’t—no! Stop that. You don’t get to see your grades when they’re still being figured out!”

“But—“

“No!” Danny glares over the desk at her firmly. “Now what were you freaking out about?”

“Oh,” Laura says. “Oh! I figured it out. The cat. I figured it out!”

“The—seriously? You proved that you cat is teleporting?”

“No, of course not, that’s ridiculous. Teleportation isn’t a thing.” Laura shoves the printouts into Danny’s face. “She’s a vampire!”

A short bark of laughter bursts out of Danny and cuts off abruptly when she takes in Laura’s expression. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“Yes!” She shoves the papers back into Danny’s face. “Look! Years and years of news reports of students blacking out at night and waking up in hospitals, weak and needing blood transfers and with needle punctures. But none of them have histories of drug use. See? Vampires!”

“Laura, vampires aren’t—even if they were then your _cat_ —“

“Vampires can shapeshift!” Laura fumbles with her bag, yanking a book out and flipping it open to a bookmark. “See, there are all sorts of reports of them turning into animals. Like cats. Giant black cats. See!”

“Laura, you’re talking about _vampires_.”

“You said it yourself, weird things happen here. Alchemy club. Haunted printer. Why not vampires?”

“Vampires aren’t _real_!”

“But everything fits!”

“You—“

“I’m going to prove it!” Laura snatches her printouts up, knocking over the empty coffee mug again. “And my essay was _excellent,_ for the record.”

 

* * *

 

The library is almost empty, but Laura hasn’t found a spectacularly foolproof plan for proving her cat is a vampire, so she stays alone, drifting off to sleep over old books that smell like her grandmother’s house. It’s fully dark outside when someone clomps up to her table and flops down loudly into the other chair, startling Laura out of her sleepy state.

“I’m awake—what—hi?” she mumbles, blinking across the table at Carmilla. “Hey.”

There’s a coffee cup sitting in front of her, undecorated but steaming. “Did you—“

“Quiet,” Carmilla says, raising an eyebrow over top of her book. “Library, remember?” She takes a sip of her own coffee, and Laura stares in spite of herself, taking in the way Carmilla’s throat works as she swallows and—

“My cat is a vampire,” Laura blurts out.

“Your what now?” Carmilla says slowly, cocking her head to one side.

“My…cat,” Laura says again, flushing and dropping her forehead into her hands. “I found this cat and I think it’s a vampire and I have to prove it.”

“Right,” Carmilla says. “Good luck with that.”

“Do you want to help?”

“Help you prove to the jolly ginger giant that your adopted pet is a vampire? No thanks.”

“But—wait, how did you— who said anything about Danny?”

“What, you have another friend you so desperately need to impress?”

“I don’t desperately need to impress anyone!” Laura says hotly. She grumbles across the table and takes a sip of her coffee. Two minutes of her flipping angrily through the book in front of her and glaring at Carmilla pass before she pauses again. “Wait, did you bring me coffee?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Right,” Laura says. She eyeballs the coffee, flipping the lid off and peering into the cup suspiciously. “It’s not poison, right?”

“If I brought you poisoned coffee, do you really think I’d tell you it was poisoned?” Carmilla flips another page, sparing a split second to flick her eyes in Laura’s direction.

“Right,” Laura says again. “Good point.” She takes another sip of the coffee anyways. “Well, do you want to help me or not?”

“I’d really rather not,” Carmilla says, but she shrugs and drops her book. It clomps loudly onto the floor, stirring up dust. “But why not?”

Half an hour later, Laura looks up to see Carmilla’s head dropped back over the back of her chair. She’s dead asleep, and the book Laura handed her hasn’t been opened yet.

 

* * *

 

“Any luck in your vampire research?” Danny falls into step with her after class, long strides stilted to match her pace on their way out of the building.

“I’m getting there,” Laura says vaguely. She glances up at Danny and then adds, “Carmilla is helping.”

“Car—really?”

“Yep.”

“Right,” Danny drawls out. “I’m sure she’s a great asset.” She holds the door open for Laura, following her into the sunlight.

“What’s up, cupcake?” Carmilla is lounging against one of the columns, all leather pants and smoky voice and—

“Seriously?” Danny mutters.

“Hi,” Laura says, leaning towards Carmilla. “Ready for some more research?”

“My enthusiasm cannot be contained,” Carmilla says. She slings an arm over Laura’s shoulders, pulling her away from Danny and guiding her down the steps. “Later, Sasquatch.”

Laura loops an arm around her waist and squeaks when her fingers brush along the line of skin between Carmilla’s leather pants and t-shirt. She can practically _hear_ Carmilla smirk back at Danny.

“Are you actually going to do anything today, or just sleep and go on coffee runs?”

“Definitely sleeping.”

“Of course.”

**

Hours later, as Laura is poring through yet another book extolling the virtues of vampirism, Carmilla wakes from her third nap and stands to go for coffee.

“You should go home,” Carmilla says drowsily, scrubbing at her face and stretching.

“Later,” Laura says. She spares a short glance up, and then pauses, looking back across the table to where Carmilla is standing, hands on her hips and head cocked to one side, blinking at her in a very cat-like manner. “You—“

“What?”

“You just, um—nothing. It’s nothing.”

“Okay,” Carmilla says, shaking her head and stretching again. “Whatever you say. I’m out.” She gathers her things and disappears swiftly down the hallways before Laura can say a word, leaving nothing but four decorated coffee cups and a book in her wake.

 

* * *

 

Sometime the next morning, Laura lets out a yell in her dorm room and jumps out of her chair, staring down at the book Carmilla had left. The cat is already gone, an indentation covered in black hair the only remnant left.

She sprints out of the room, book in hand, and makes it to the gym in record time for wearing mismatched shoes.

Danny is doing pull-ups this time, but even the rippling muscles in her back aren’t enough to distract Laura, and she skids to a stop on the other side of the pull-up bar, thrusting the book up at Danny.

“I figured it out! I was right, I can prove it!”

“You can prove what?” Danny huffs out, finishing her pull up and grinding out an irritated “Fifty-one,” before dropping to the ground.

“The cat’s a vampire!” Laura shoves the book forward, and Danny stumbles back, catching herself on the wall and grabbing the book out of Laura’s hands.

“This just talks about a girl from the 17th century, it—“

Laura snatches the book back, flipping forward the pages impatiently before throwing it back into Danny’s face. “Look!”

Danny scans through the page reluctantly, handing the book back to Laura after a few moments. “This is just a myth about a vampire who can turn into a cat, it doesn’t prove anything.”

“It _does_ if the vampire is a student here! See?” Laura shoves two more pages through Danny’s hands, pointing blindly to a picture in the middle of one page.

“There isn’t a vampire at—is that coffee girl?”

“It _is_!” Laura thumps triumphantly at the cover of the book, spinning around once and pointing sharply at Danny. “I told you I could prove it!”

“You just proved that the girl in your sociology class who follows you around the library is also the cat who follows you _home_?”

“I mean, when you put it that way—“

“Laura!” Danny shouts. “If you’re right, if this is—you’ve had a _vampire_ living in your room every night. While you sleep!”

“Well, she hasn’t done anything yet, so it’s totally okay,” Laura says defensively. She snatches the book back. “Obviously she likes me enough not to turn me into a meal.”

“That—you don’t know that! She might just be biding her time!”

“So you _do_ believe me!” Laura stabs a finger violently into Danny’s chest, smiling manically when Danny stumbles back a step. “I told you I’d prove it!”

Outside, the clock chimes musically, indicating a quarter to the hour, and Laura curses at her watch.

“I have to go. I have a vampire to talk to.”

“Laura, wait!”

Danny’s words fall on deaf ears, and Laura is already gone, on her way to her sociology class.

 

* * *

 

Laura hovers around the corner from her sociology classroom, watching feverishly as students file into the class, coffee in one hand and phone in the other. The professor turns the corner, and Laura’s eyes widen as Carmilla saunters around six steps behind the professor.

The professor disappears into the classroom, and Laura sprints from her hiding spot, blitzing past the open classroom door and grabbing Carmilla by the arm, slamming her into the wall.

“What—“

“I know what you are,” Laura hisses dramatically, inches away from Carmilla’s face.

“And what’s that, creampuff,” Carmilla says— _purrs_ —and Laura’s whole body shivers because that smirking mouth is two inches away and that voice is pornographic and—

“You’re a _vampire_ ,” Laura says, warding off her inappropriately sexual thoughts. “And you’re my cat.”

“Is that a euphemism, because—“

“I haven’t slept in two days!” Laura whispers harshly. “Don’t mess with me!”

“Yeah,” Carmilla drawls out. One eyebrow tweaks upwards, and Laura’s stomach twists in a way that has nothing to do with the ratio of her caffeine to food consumption. “I know.”

“See!” Laura says after only a short hesitation due to weaker knees. “You know I haven’t slept because you’re in my room as my _cat_ every night, and then you disappear, and go to class, and to the library, and…why did you give me that book?”

Carmilla shrugs. “I was bored.”

“You were…bored, so you found a way for me to discover that you were a vampire who’s been killing people at this school for two hundred years?”

“One, cupcake: if you thought I was killing that many people, you wouldn’t be tackling me in a hallway. Two: yes, I was bored. I didn’t think it would take you this long, though. Or that you would wind up so…you know…about me.” She rolls her hips forward, and Laura’s eyes slip shut for a moment—it’s _exhaustion_ , that’s obviously all it is—before snapping open.

“I am not—you know,” she says weakly.

“You sure about that?” Carmilla’s hands finally move, fingers curling lightly around Laura’s hips. “Are you really, really sure?” Her hips push forward again, and Laura’s whole body twitches.

“Right, “Carmilla says with a laugh. “That’s what I thought.” She breaks Laura’s hold on her easily, stalking forward until Laura’s back collides with the opposite wall and she’s caging Laura in with both arms. She licks at her teeth— _fangs_ , those are definitely fangs—and leans in to inhale slowly against Laura’s neck.

“I took care of you as a cat, you really shouldn’t kill me,” Laura says shrilly. “Besides, there’s a whole classroom of people right there, they’ll hear— _oh_.” It’s not teeth, but that’s definitely a tongue on her neck. “Oh, wow.”

“First point,” Carmilla says, nipping at her ear. “I haven’t killed a human since 1789."

“Second point.” Her lips skim along the line of Laura’s jaw for a brief second. “If I wanted to kill you, you would have died the minute you took me to that damn Amazon’s house.”

“Oh,” Laura says faintly. “Right. So you actually are a vampire who turns into a cat, but you don’t want to eat me?”

“Well,” Carmilla says with a slow wink. “Maybe just not in the way you think.”

“In the— _oh_.” Laura flushes brilliantly. “Well, when you put it that way.”

“That’s what I thought,” Carmilla says. She swoops forward, moving smoothly and fluidly—like a cat—and kisses Laura, heavy but careful, and it takes less than a second for Laura to respond, arching towards her and finally moving her hands to grip at Carmilla’s shoulders.

Time slips past, and Carmilla eventually pulls away with a gentle bite at Laura’s lower lip. “So, what do you say, cupcake? You, me, dinner tonight?”

“Why did you stop ki—wait, what? Dinner?”

“Dinner.”

“Like, real dinner, or you turning me into a vampire dinner?”

“Real dinner.” Carmilla rolls her eyes.

“You’re asking me on a date?”

“You could sound more confused if you tried, I’m sure, but you’d have to work at it.”

“I guess I just—after that—a date seems so….formal?”

“Yeah, well, I was born in 1680,” Carmilla says. “Old habits die hard.”

“1680,” Laura echoes. Her hand shifts from Carmilla’s shoulder to the back of her neck. “Well, it’s 2014 now, so.” She tugs Carmilla forward, kissing her again.

“I finally like 2014,” Carmilla mumbles, and Laura laughs against her mouth.

“Wait, why did you keep coming back to my room?”

Carmilla shrugs, the movement shifting her whole body, and Laura swallows heavily at the movement against her front. Carmilla smirks, inhaling deeply, and waits long seconds before speaking again.

“You were good to me. Even when I chased off your guard dog of an Amazon. I wanted to see what would happen.”

“So what happened?”

“You did,” Carmilla says simply.

“Oh.” Laura slides her fingers up into Carmilla’s hair. “Right.”

“So. Dinner?”

“Right,” Laura says again. “Dinner. Propriety. 1680.” She grips tighter to Carmilla’s hair when Carmilla bites down on her ear again.

“What do you say?”

It should be absolutely illegal for a voice to sound that much like sex, Laura is sure of it.

“It’s a date,” she says, reigning in her hormones enough to look Carmilla in the eye for a moment.

“Marvelous,” Carmilla purrs, and Laura’s whole body shakes at the sound. “It’s a date.”

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
